


Not Alone

by celestialenigma



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Brother Feels, Brotherly Love, Brothers, Cute Kids, Gen, Hong Kong, Human & Country Names Used, hong kong is adorable, like for real
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 16:01:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11854965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celestialenigma/pseuds/celestialenigma
Summary: Matthew hears a crying from the room next to his own. He goes to help.





	Not Alone

Matthew knew what it was like to be ignored. How it felt when the two people, who were supposed to care for you, had spent all of their time fighting instead of giving you even the slightest scrap of attention. Oh, Matthew had never wanted for food and his stomach had always been full. He’d never gone cold, his body always covered in expensive fabrics that were embroidered with the finest golden and silver threads. Matthew remembered all of that very clearly.

He remembered being scared and alone in a foreign land, without anybody to comfort him.

So perhaps that was why his heart clenched so painfully when he heard the muffled sobbing from the room beside his own in the massive London manor. Hours ago the small child had been unceremoniously shoved into the bedroom and the door locked. Matthew had watched with his door cracked to a slit. He hadn’t wanted England to know he’d been spying.

For hours the downstairs had been filled with the sounds of yelling and the crashing of furniture and objects. A voice speaking English and one in Chinese. However for the last hour that had stopped after the front door slammed to a close. 

Steeling up all of his courage, Matthew took a deep breath and crept out into the hall. As he went down the stairs he could see the carnage. Glass broken everywhere, much of it had been very expensive, as most things in England’s home were. Splinters of wood were scattered over the floor. Matthew tiptoed quietly around those. He was looking for something specific. 

Ah! Right there was England, passed out on one of the last remaining chairs, bottle of rum nearly fallen out of his dangling hand and a dribble of drool down his chin. The empire wouldn’t be waking any time soon. So Matthew felt bold enough to slip the skeleton key from the table beside the chair that contained the drunken nation. Matthew put it into his pocket and went to the kitchen where he heated up a cup of milk and buttered some slices of bread that the servants had baked before they left upon China’s arrival.

Then he went back upstairs and to the room beside his.

Inside the décor was as lavish as the rest of the home, not a speck of dust out of place nor a single toy on the ground. The blankets on the bed were straight as a pin and untouched. The sobbing had ceased as soon as Matthew had entered.

Matthew set the snack down upon a table and looked around. He saw that the closet door, which was the nearest to his room, was open a crack. 

“Hello? You are in here, right?” called Matthew into the dimness of the room.

He went about and began to light some of the oil lamps as he continued, “I don’t know if you can understand me, but I brought you some food.”

Once the room was lit up enough, Matthew opened the closet door. What he saw nearly broke his heart. Hong Kong sat curled up in a corner with a spare quilt. Tears were streaming down his flushed red cheeks, eyes wide with fear. The boy was chewing hard on his bottom lip and a tiny tinge of red blood burst up from where he bit.

Voice softened even more than it would usually be, Matthew said, “I’m not going to hurt you.”

The tears continued to fall but Matthew understood. Crying could be hard to stop once you started.

Matthew reached out, ignoring the boys flinch, and gently worked the abused lip from out of the boy’s mouth. Then he took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped away the blood, then the tears. He put the cloth in Hong Kong’s tiny hand so future use. 

Pointing to himself, Matthew said, “Canada, Matthew.”

Hong Kong sniffled and whispered, “Hong Kong, Li Xiao Chun.”

Matthew attempted to repeat what he’d heard the small child say. The result made Hong Kong giggle and then sniffle once more. 

“Hmm,” said Matthew before pointing at the boy and saying in a questioning tone of voice, “Lee?”

With a nod, the boy said, “Li.”

The Lee pointed outside of the closet and put his hands up to his forehead and used all of the fingers of each hand as eyebrows and then he pointed back at himself and said, “Leon.”

“So England called you Leon?” said Matthew, knowing that most of what he said went over the Chinese boy’s head, “Well I think I’ll still call you Li.”

Extending his hand for Li to take, Matthew then led the boy over to the small table on which he’d placed food. He gestured to the food, and then to Li.

Li, barely even tall enough to see the top of the table without standing on his tip-toes, poked the crust of the bread once, twice, before climbing up on the chair. The boy began to nibble it gently. He smiled around the food and looked at the cup and then to Matthew. 

Nodding, Matthew said, “Go ahead it’s yours. Warm milk always helps me calm down. I usually add a bit of maple syrup to it but I ran out of what I brought from home about a month ago.”

Matthew sat down across from Li and watched the hungry child eat and drink. He wished they could speak the same language.

“Milk,” said Matthew, pointing at the beverage.

“Niúnăi” said Li before he took another sip.

Once again butchering the foreign word, much to the child’s amusement, Matthew pointed to the handkerchief and mimed wiping his face. Li did so and then yawned.

“Bed?” asked Matthew, pointing to the bed in question.

Li shook his head and went to a shelf beside a chair and pulled off a book. Matthew walked over and looked it at the richly illustrated children’s book. All written in Chinese. 

They sat down together, Li on Matthew’s lap. Li would read the book, which he knew by heart it seemed. Sometimes Matthew would ask about the names of specific things.

Pointing to a tiger, Matthew asked, “What’s that?”

“Lăohŭ,” said Li.

Eventually, the boy’s words began to slow, until Li was limp and his eyes were drooping, his words coming out in a big yawn each time.

“Now you should go to bed,” announced Matthew, rather used to stubborn children, having put Australia to bed more than once.

As soon as Matthew picked him up and headed towards the bed, Li clung to Matthew’s shirt. He spoke rapidly in words Matthew did not understand.

“England will be quite cross if you don’t sleep,” said Matthew, knowing his words weren’t grasped, trying to get Li to understand.

Matthew sat on the bed and tried to place Li down. Li grabbed Matthew’s shirt and tugged the older boy down. The boy pressed Matthew’s shoulder to the bed and then put his fingertips over Matthew’s eyes, coaxing them to close.

Matthew got the hint and chuckled, “All right. I’ll sleep the night here. I didn’t want to be alone my first nights either.”

He tucked the blankets around the child, whose one eye stayed open as if wanting to be sure he wouldn’t be left alone. Matthew closed his own eyes and let himself start to fall asleep.

Right before he finally fell asleep, he heard a whispered voice say a heavily accented, “Brother.”

And felt Li’s small hand on his.

Matthew smiled, even if it meant facing England’s ire the next day, keeping his new brother from being scared was worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: # 1 -Apologies for the possibly mangled Chinese. I tried not to use Google translate but idk if the words I used were Cantonese or mandarin (or maybe another kind of Chinese?).
> 
> # 2 -England locked Hong Kong in so that the boy didn’t run out to find China. He might seem like a monster here and I guess he kind of is. However it was more a case of not really thinking his actions through than truly being malicious. I imagine, with his child underlings, he never had to face the consequences of his actions because of Canada. You see, Canada would stay with England and watch over the little ones. He’d feed hungry kids that get forgotten, wipe faces, give baths, and play with them. He didn’t want them to feel lonely like he had been. 
> 
> # 3 -Hong Kong understood the word for brother because he’d heard England saying that they were brothers and eventually understood the word.  
> # 4 -Canada’s physical age is probably about 15-16 here. Hong Kong would have come to live with England before Canada gained his own independence. So he was close to his current age but not quite.


End file.
